On Wednesday, October 5, Columbia University Libraries will present a lecture by Professor Alexander J. Field on his new book, A Great Leap Forward: 1930s Depression and U.S. Economic Growth. The lecture will take place at 6:30 p.m. in Butler Library, Room 523.
Field’s book is a bold re-examination of the history of U.S. economic growth built around a novel claim: that productive capacity grew dramatically across the Depression years (1929-1941) and that this advance provided the foundation for the economic and military success of the United States during the Second World War as well as for the golden age (1948-1973) that followed.
James Surowiecki of the New Yorker called the book “extraordinary.” Tyler Cowen described it as “(a)masterpiece….one of the best economics books of the last ten years…one of the best books on the Depression…the only economic interpretation of WWII that makes sense… one of the must reads of the year.” Field described the 1930s as “the most technologically progressive decade of the century” in a recent interview with David Leonhardt of the New York Times.
Professor Field is the Michel and Mary Orradre Professor of Economics at Santa Clara University and Executive Director of the Economic History Association.
To attend the lecture, please email cul-events@columbia.edu.